


What I Want To Tell You

by jaebirdbluetheawesome (GreyAreaSystem)



Series: Jae Does Maribat [11]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is a good person, F/F, F/M, Marinette has selective mutism, No Lila Rossi Redemption, Whole class redemption except Lila because fuck Lila
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26398120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyAreaSystem/pseuds/jaebirdbluetheawesome
Summary: Marinette was a missing person for four years.No one knows where she went.One day she was gone, one day she was home again.But ever since the incident, she has suffered from selective mutism and refuses to speak.In the two years she has been home, they have only ever heard one sentence spoken aloud from her:"I went to Tibet."But then she meets Robin.And for whatever reason, maybe it's the mask, or the anonymity of the whole thing, she finds herself able to speak again.This is everything she wants to tell him.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste & Chloé Bourgeois & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne
Series: Jae Does Maribat [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877605
Comments: 231
Kudos: 759





	1. Chapter 1

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Adrien Agreste, I will be speaking on behalf of Miss Dupain-Cheng this morning.” Adrien gave an awkward smile to the confused board members. “She has created this entire thing, everything I tell you is entirely her own doing, but I will be explaining it as she wants me to.”

“Mr. Agreste, may I ask why?” Someone gestured to Marinette, who was clearly and quite obviously sitting right next to him. 

“Yes! Uh, you see, someone on our end kinda forgot to mention that Marinette is no longer speaking to people after an accident, and that was an oversight on our part. We are deeply sorry. Now, to begin-”

* * *

Damian spent the whole meeting staring at her. 

There was something oddly familiar about her, but she couldn’t put his finger on it. 

And that tattoo on the back of her hand looked strange as well. 

Before he knew it the meeting was over, and everyone was giving glowing reviews. 

She seemed proud of this, smiling at people and nodded in appreciation. 

One person asked her a question, and she dug out a notepad to write a response. 

But instead of showing it to the woman she showed it to her friend, and he told her what it read. 

_How odd._

As people were starting to file out, he stopped her. 

“I have seen how you do not speak, but may I ask about your hand?” He asked, an eyebrow raised. 

She looked somewhat afraid of this, taking a step back away from him. 

She quickly scribbled on her notebook. 

But instead of showing it to Agreste, she showed him, 

_Bad People_

He only saw it for a second before she tore it out of her book and shoved it in her pocket. 

Adrien gave him a strange look as he walked over. 

“Is everything ok?”

She nodded aggressively at him, and gave a thumbs up. 

He looked like he didn’t believe her. 

“I think we were just ending our conversation.” He nodded sharply at her, and she nodded in return. 

He needed to figure out what that meant. 

She was hiding something. 

Something not good. 

And he needed to find out what it was. 

* * *

  
  


“Got an obsession?” Tim frowned as he looked over his shoulder. “Cute new business partner?”

“Shut up.” He grumbled, looking into everything he could find about her. 

For some reason, there was a gap missing in her life. 

A four-year gap.

When a normal kid was at a college or university, she was a missing person. 

“Come on, Robin, let’s get a move on.”

“I can’t believe I’m twenty five and you idiots still insist on my being Robin. Have any of you lasted this long as a Robin? I thought fucking not.” He grumbled, and followed Grayson to the Batmobile. 

* * *

He did not expect to see her as Robin. 

He did not expect to see her in a grocery store that was getting held up. 

He did not expect to see her grab a knife in the kitchenware section of the store, peel it out of the package, and start stabbing men left and right in places that wouldn’t kill them just extremely injure them.

He most certainly did not expect her to talk to him. 

“Looks like I’m buying a knife I don’t need huh?” She joked. 

He jumped in surprise. 

“What? Cat catch a bird's tongue?” She teased. 

“You’re not supposed to talk.” He blurted out by accident. She snorted. 

“No, I don’t talk to people.” She pointed out, throwing the knife package into her grocery cart and pulling it out of the aisle. “I can talk to _animals_ just fine.”

“But I am a person?” He pointed out. She stopped walking away, and stared at him. 

“Yes, but… I can’t see your eyes. Therefore, to my fairly illogical brain, that qualifies you as one of the very few people I get to talk to.”

“Huh?”

“I…” She bit her lip, and stared at the floor. “It’s a long story.” 

“I wish to hear it some time.” She gave the floor a small smile, and said, 

“Sometime.”

* * *

He saw her again three days later, on an apartment balcony. 

She was watering flowers. 

And talking to them. 

“And then that crazy man had the audacity to yell at me, and I was in no condition to tell him off, and so I just stared at him, and he called me a psycho bitch, and that was awfully rude of him, but then some cop guy came over, and he was nice about the whole sketchpad situation, and-” Fortunately for him, she was on the top floor. 

So when he was sitting with his legs dangling over the side of her roof, they almost reached the top of her balcony door. 

When she was done with her story, he asked, 

“Do you always talk to your plants?”

She jumped and glared at him until she realised who he was. 

“Don’t scare me.”

“Well it was either this, or interrupt you, and your tale was rather riveting.” He shrugged. She went back to scowling. 

“Yes, I talk to my plants often. I tell them everything I wish I could tell people.” He jumped down, and took a seat in a deck chair.

“So if you want to talk to people so bad, why don’t you?” She tensed, and he regretted the question. 

“I… I suppose now is sometime.” She mumbled, and opened the glass door. 

“Oh?”

“Would you like cookies?” She asked, and he decided to follow her in. 

“What kind of cookies?”

“Chocolate chip.”

“Hm, I think I may have to try some. See if they are worth anything.”

“Gee, thanks.” She rolled her eyes at him. 

She hopped up on a stool at a breakfast bar, and handed him a cookie before cooing over a lily plant for a second. 

“So, tell me.” He made a funny face. “What makes me special?” She snorted, but then her expression changed. 

“I… I can talk to plants. I can talk to my flowers, but only when people aren’t around. And animals. I love talking to animals. I like telling them how my day is going, and telling them fun little stories. Stories I wish I could tell my friends, but I can’t. I can’t tell people anything because…” He munched on his cookie as she made a pained expression. “Because I look at them and I feel like throat is closing up, like I’m not capable of talking without telling them everything, and I’m afraid if I tel them everything then they won’t want to talk to me anymre and my dumb brain thinks that if I can’t talk to them without spilling the beans then I’m not allowed to talk at all.”

“Spilling what beans?” _This probably had to do with-_

“My trip to Tibet. To train under a certain elite group of people who made me into an awful person.” He stopped munching. 

“Huh?”

“I can’t… I can’t tell you any more than that. Even if I wanted to. But I’m literally incapable of telling people the whole story. I… feel like my brain is about to explode every time I even try.”

“You have tried before?”

“I tried telling Adrien, but… I did that thing where my throat closed up, as if I were having an allergic reaction to the words I’m trying to say.”

“I don’t know how to explain this to you, but I do actually know the exact thing you’re going through.” She gave him a funny look. “Freak elite training and all.”

“No kidding?” She whispered. 

“Yeah. No kidding.” He spoke softly. 

This was not what he had in mind. 

Not at all. 

When he thought he was going to stretch her on info for ‘bad people’ for him to take down, he didn't think it would lead to comparing notes on silly clubs and eating cookies. 

“Maybe… maybe you can help me.” She mumbled. 

“Help you?”

“Maybe trick my dumb brain into letting me talk to you by telling you a little at a time.”

“Is this an invitation back?”

“Maybe?” She shrugged. 

He stared at her. 

She went missing for four years. 

She was in Tibet. 

She was training under someone. 

She was really good at fighting. 

She _wanted_ to talk about what happened in Tibet. 

She _couldn’t_ talk about what happened in Tibet. 

He might be able to help her talk.

And he wanted whatever information she had. 

“Yeah. I would love to come back and talk to you some other time.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at him. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WHO WANTS SOME BACKSTORY!!!

He saw her again the next day, at the Wayne tower. 

She was with Adrien, animatedly signing some story with her hands to Cass. 

Cass was smiling.

He couldn't really see her hands, but he caught snippets ase she walked. 

Something about a… sock monster? 

And a mothman?

What the fuck? 

_ ‘And then the off-brand mothman was all like ‘grr I’m taking your magic jewlery to save my wife’ to which then L-A-D-Y-B-U-G Was all like ‘everything comes at a price and also fuck you’ and then-’ _

“What on earth is an off-brand mothman?” Damian made a strange face at her. She jumped, and wildly started her story from the beginning. 

_ ‘So as I was telling C-A-S-S, there was a supervillain in Paris, his name was H-A-W-K-M-O-T-H, before I had my accident, and he had the magic power to mind control people, and he would turn them all into temporary supervillains to do his dirty work for him to get things called M-I-R-A-C-U-L-O-U-S, and the point of getting more magic was so that he could rewrite the course of the universe so that his wife never fell into that coma and then LB and CN stopped him and-’ _

“What’s a CN?” He asked. 

“Chat Noir.” Adrien answered for her, looking upset by the conversation. “Ladybug’s partner. Ladybug had the power of creation, Chat Noir could destroy things. They were only ever in use at the same time if there was a world-ending threat.” He noticed Adrien was not looking at her hands, in similar ways a kid would plug their ears to avoid listening to an adult. 

“I wonder why the Justice never did anything about it.” He frowned, wonderin why this was the first he had heard about it. 

_ ‘They tried, LB would not let them. She was worried about what would happen if she ever had to fight an evil Wonder Woman. Can you imagine an evil Wonder Woman?’ _

“No I cannot.” He had to agree, she had a point. Even Amazonians could not resist mind control. That would have been a tragedy. “But as interesting as this is, I do have to go.” She waved goodbye, giving him a soft smile. 

It was more than most people gave him around here.

He could feel her watching as he walked away. 

He decided he should bring Cass to her next time they were on patrol. 

She seemed to relax around Cass. 

Maybe Black Bat would be similar. 

* * *

When he got out of his meeting he found Agreste waiting in his office.

“Agreste.” He acknowledged him. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” It was not a pleasure. He did not seem happy.

The blond looked him up and down. 

“I don’t know why, but Marinette seems to have taken a liking to you.” He said, frowning slightly. 

“Oh?” This threw him off slightly, but he wouldn’t show it.

“This morning. When she was talking to… Cass, was it?”

“What about her?”

“She started signing to her because she sensed something in her. She does that a lot, actually. She… reads people. Somehow, she knew Cass would understand her.” He said casually, but then narrowed his eyes at him, “But then  _ you  _ walked over. And she was excited to sign to you. And you asked her questions out loud, and she was happy to answer them. That is not  _ normal _ . She does  _ not _ sign to random people, she rarely ever does it even for her own friends. She uses the notebook if she has to, but she rarely ever uses sign language.” Damian felt a little bit proud of this. A slight ego boost. 

_ So Damian is just as special as Robin, huh? _

“Well, give her my appreciation on your way out, then, would you?” He asked, making a very insincere face at the man, who made a judgemental face back at him. 

“She really doesn’t do that for just anyone, and if you upset her, there will be _ extreme  _ repercussions.” 

“Oh?” It was Damian's turn to make the judgemental face. “And what do you believe those will be?”  _ This must be damn stupid if he thinks he can touch me. _

“There are still superheroes in Paris.” He warned him, “Many of them completely  _ adore  _ Marinette. Fuck this up, and they will  _ have  _ your ass.” Adrien marched out, and he made a face at the shut door.

* * *

_ ‘Please tell me You did not Shovel Talk a man I signed to  _ _ once _ _?’ _ She wrote on a piece of paper.

“I cannot make that promise.” Adrien tensed. 

He really should be used to her knowing things she shouldn’t by now, but somehow, he just didn’t. 

He still couldn’t get over how much she could read people, even when she wasn’t in the room.

It was ridiculous.

He thought about the day she came home. 

* * *

He was in the kitchen cutting up carrots when heard his apartment door open, but he swore he had locked it. 

He panicked, grabbing a knife from his knife block, a bigger one, anyway, and snuck towards the kitchen door. 

He opened it, and saw an intruder. 

He threw the knife at them, using his Chat Noir abilities to aim. 

She caught the knife between her fingers, and dropped it on the ground. 

“Who are you and- wait, Marinette?” He was horrified. 

She wasn’t dead.

He had spent every day for the last four years worrying about her, and here she was. 

Standing in his living room dressed entirely in black and holding a duffel bag, looking like a mess. 

She didn’t answer him as she dropped the bag, and marched over to his couch. 

“Marinette, are you ok? What happened? Were you kidnapped? Where did they take you? Did you kill them? Did you-” He stopped when he realised he was asking too many questions for her to answer. 

She looked different than when she had left. But she looked like she had aged a lot more than only four years, too.

“Marinette, talk to me.” He said hollowly. “Please please please… don’t be a hallucination.” He said, afraid he might start crying. 

“I went to Tibet.” She said. 

“Why?” She opened her mouth to start talking, but just burst into tears instead. 

And then he started crying, and then Nino and Alya showed up and they started crying and then Luka and then Julak and Rose and Max and Kim and everyone else showed up and they all just sat on Adrien’s living room floor in a mess of tears and tissues. 

And then she laughed. 

She refused to talk, but she was laughing and crying and that meant they were all ok. 

They were quite a bit messed up, and extremely confused, but they were ok. 

Everything was going to get better. 

They could feel it. 

* * *

But she still wasn’t talking. 

She saw her parents the next day, after falling asleep in a heap of people on the rug, Marinette with her arms wrapped tightly around Alya and using her old best friend as a pillow (as well as Nino as a footrest). 

She saw her parents, and cried all over again. 

She was home. 

She was finally back at home. 

* * *

Alya and Max helped her get her business back up again. 

Nino and Adrien wanted to help, but they mostly just gave silly ideas seeing as they were the least qualified to help in that department. 

Alya at least had double majored, in literature and business, she had a feeling a business degree would come in handy someday. 

Max was just all-around smart. 

She wrote her questions and ideas all down on paper, and they never questioned it. 

They loved her too much to question it. 

But then Alix suggested they both learn sign language, since she was… not the best at reading emotions. 

And then the whole rest of the  team class wanted in too. 

But she hardly ever used sign language, even if she knew it. 

She only used it with her friends, and on rare occasions. 

That didn’t discourage any of them from learning for her. 

They wanted her to know that disappearing changed nothing and her new lifestyle changed nothing and she was still as important as she was when she left. 

She loved them for that.

* * *

“You know, Dad had to stop everyone from trying to hold a funeral for you.” Luka informed her while she sketched on his bedroom floor one day. 

She gave him an amused but quizzical look. 

“Yeah, they were all convinced you had been murdered and they were all like ‘yup that’s it time to host a funeral’ and started making arrangements and then Jagged was all like ‘you idiots she’s not dead’ and they kinda ignored him and eventually he had to forcefully stop them from holding a funeral.”

She started to giggle, the idea of holding a funeral for a living person was silly, but then it hit her what that meant. 

It meant her parents had thought she was dead. 

Her parents thought that they were living in a world where they had to hold a funeral for their child. 

“I never doubted you for a second, though.” He tossed a guitar pick at her, and she caught it. 

She smiled her thanks. 

“You’re welcome.” 

Her sad expression softened, and he knew what that meant. 

“Yeah, I’m glad that I can understand you, too. You don’t ever have to worry about me, Little Cousin. I’ve always got you.” She smiled softly as her appreciation, and closed her eyes as he played a little bit louder. 

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

“Hey you.” She heard him coming this time. 

“Hello, Robin.” She didn’t have to turn around to see him. “Back so soon?”

“I couldn’t hardly wait.” She laughed. 

“And I see you brought a friend.”

“Older sister, actually.” She finished watering her plants, and finally turned around to see Black Bat standing behind him.

“Hello, Other Bat.” She smiled at her. The girl reacted warmly to this. “I don’t have any siblings, but I do have two cousins.” 

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” She grinned as she thought about them. “Juleka and Luka. I never have to worry about expressing emotions in front of them, they… have an almost inhuman understanding of how people feel. Especially me.”

“Really?”

* * *

They had to be meta’s.

The way she described them, there was no way they weren’t.

“Luka calls it heartsongs. Juleka thinks naming it is ridiculous.”

“Heartsongs?” Black Bat questioned. 

“Luka has this…He can look at someone, and hear a song. He can feel what people are feeling through the type of music they play like, even if they are just sitting still. He can hear how someone’s emotions change based on how their music changes.”

Yep.

Her cousin was a meta. 

Which meant she may also be a meta. 

But that would be the _ least _ weird thing he learned about today. 

“Interesting. But as much as I would like to know about him, I, shockingly, came here for you.” He jumped down from the roof, and landed on the balcony. 

“Oh how kind of you.” She deadpanned. “But tragically I don’t have any cookies.”

“Awe, what a shame.” He leaned on the railing, “I guess I’ll have to come back another time.” She rolled her eyes at him, and walked in the door. 

She left it open. 

The two walked in behind her. Black Bat shut the door, as she was the last one in. 

“Hot chocolate? I got some funny flavored packets I wanna try out.”

“I’ll take some, but Black Bat is a no-go on the snacks, her helmet goes over her mouth. And only Red Hood wears a mask under a mask. He says it’s for  _ the aesthetic. _ ”

“I think I might like someone like that.”

“Oh trust me. You’re basically fashion royalty, you would hate someone like Red Hood.” She laughed. 

It was a good thing she had a nice laugh, or he might have gotten annoyed with it. 

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Oh, you should.” He nodded. 

“You know,” She went over and took a seat on a couch. Black Bat was already curled up in a chair. “You are the last one I would have expected to do this whole flirting for information thing.” That caught him off-guard.

“I am not flirting for information.” He scowled. “I am simply-”

“Trying to help? Yeah, sure.” She smirked as she rolled her eyes. “This has nothing to do with the mystery tattoo or the fact that you clearly seem to know me better than what I’ve told you, how you practically  _ jumped _ in that grocery store, so I don’t really think you actually give a shit about me.” She calmly took a sip from her ridiculously large mug. “I think you want something.”

“That is preposterous.”

“Stop lying to me and I won’t tell you what my offer is.” He recoiled slightly, but accepted. 

“Fine. Maybe I really want to know what the hell happened to you for personal reasons, but… that doesn’t mean I don’t care at all about you. You do seem to be a fairly nice person, and it would be a shame to see you in distress.” He shrugged. She pondered this for a second. 

“Ok.” She nodded. “You may want to know for different reasons than I want to tell, but I have decided that talking to you about my feelings is mutually beneficial, and that since you are Robin it can’t be too terrible to tell you. You are… one of the vigilante’s, so you can’t be  _ too  _ terrible.” He listened to her carefully. 

“You have a point.” He nodded. “I would like to hear what you have to say.” She dropped the cold act in a second. 

She stopped being someone who was trying to worm something out of him and went to a kid who was scared and alone in a second. 

“Take your time.” Black Bat said, and he noticed her relax slightly. 

“I let people think I was kidnapped.” She started. “I was not kidnapped, I went by choice.” She took another deep breath. “I went to a temple in Tibet. It was… it was a place called… It... “ She closed her eyes. Maybe if she wasn’t looking at them, it would be easier. “It was called the Order of the Guardians. They guard these things called Miraculouses. They are magic jewelry bound to tiny gods, and whoever wears them gains their magic powers. The Ladybug was a pair of earrings bound to a goddess named Tikki who granted the power of creation. Plagg was bound to a ring, he granted the ability to destroy anything. Xuppu is to a headpiece, he was the power of confusion, used to distract enemies. Longg was a choker, he has the power of the elements. The list goes on, fluff granting the power of time through a magic clock, so on so forth, and…” She bit her lip, wondering how to go on from there. 

“Why were you at the temple?” He prompted. What he really wanted to know was how she knew in the first place.

“The last guardian, before me, he accidentally destroyed it when he created an evil sentient monster. When Ladybug destroyed the lost monster, it restored the temple and… well basically, it un-killed all those people, 200 years later. It brought back the building and the people who had been killed in it.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

“The power of creation _ also _ works as a power of restoration.” She explained. “Anyway, the only remaining guardian after everyone else was killed kinda… named me the next guardian. Without my permission. And then he lost all of his memories as he gave up the miracle box, leaving me with a mile-long list of hero identities to protect, and a super villain to defeat. Essentially, by myself since my dickhead partner kinda stopped being useful after a while.”

“Partner?” This only slightly baffled him. 

“Chat Noir. My partner.”

“I thought he was- Oh.” He stared at the small broken woman. 

“Ladybug’s partner. My partner. I was Ladybug.” She still had her eyes closed. “I was Ladybug.” She repeated like she couldn’t believe it. “And I had to take down a super freak, guard magic jewelry, and do everything myself.” 

He noticed tears start to form in her eyes. 

This was a slight problem. 

“And I did it.” She continued, quietly. “I sacrificed my whole personal life to save that damn city, and it nearly cost me everything. And then… I remembered.” She took a sip from her mug, keeping her eyes closed. “I remembered the temple I had restored, I remembered legends the old guardian had told me about it. So I grabbed the miracle box, and when school ended I headed to the temple. I wanted… I wanted to learn about how to be a good guardian, how to handle what I was doing,  _ I didn’t even know what I was doing _ , I had never been told what being a guardian entailed, and I just…” She let the first tear fall, but she didn’t sob like an ugle mess as he expected her to. 

* * *

It didn’t feel as good as she thought it would. 

She thought talking about it would make it magically go away, like people always told her it would. 

She thought she could just tell the samn story and be on her merry way. 

But it didn’t work like that. 

There was no *poof* and all the pain is gone. 

No draining out of her as if unclogging a hole in the sink or the tub drain. 

There was nothing. 

She just felt… nothing. 

She felt no better and no worse. 

But then again, the story had just barely started. 

“I don’t think I can do all of this today.” She found herself saying. 

“Is this going to turn about to be like therapy? Do I need to schedule an appointment with you?” He tried to make a joke. It wasn't that funny. 

“I’m busy tomorrow, I have a lot of art designing for some project I have to do, but I think after ten, I’ll… he might have left.”

“I will see you when it is convenient.” He got up and left. 

She barely heard Black Bat move, but she did. 

* * *

A few days later, she was out watering her flowers for only a second, simply because she remembered to, when she sensed Robin climbing up onto her roof from the other side. 

She didn’t say anything. 

Her throat was betraying her. 

But not for the lack of words for Robin, it was for the lack of words in general. 

“Hello, Marinette.” He said from the roof. 

She calmly turned to face him, leaning backwards onto her balcony railing. She waved. 

“Would you happen to be able to chat this fine evening?”

She shook her head no. 

“And why might that be? Anything a friendly neighborhood vigilante can help out with?” She shook her head again. 

“Oh?”

She signed the letter A. And then the letter G. He was smart enough to fill in the rest from there. 

“Shall I come back another time?” She nodded, smiling slightly. He stood up, and then paused. “No offense, but I like the excited you a lot better. Are you sure you like keeping him around?” She snorted at him, and then waved him away. “Fine, but only if you say so.” He finally left. 

She thought about what he said. 

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

She knew Damian was Robin. 

She knew it from the second time she had seen him out of the mask. 

She had completely confirmed it the second time she saw him in the mask. 

There was no way Damian was not Robin. 

They had most of the same face, the same voice, they moved the same way, talked the same way, and they had the same… Heartsong-that-wasn’t-a-song. 

She couldn’t put her finger on it. 

It must have been one of her guardian senses. 

It was like a rhythm. 

Maybe she was just starting to sound as crazy as Luka. 

* * *

She saw him once more as Robin. 

But this time, she didn’t have it in her to talk about Tibet. 

“I really… I just… I don’t…”

“Tell me about your friends.” He interjected. She squeezed her mouth shut, knowing this was his idea of a distraction. 

So she let him. 

“When we were little, my friend Kim and I used to try and tell the substitutes we were twins just to see how they would react.” She smiled down at the floor as she munched on a piece of pizza. “And then the game just stuck.”

“Game?”

“We still sometimes pretend that we’re twins. See who believes it. Who’s actually dumb enough to look a french-chinese kid and a vietnamese kid and actually say ‘yeah I can see the resemblance’. That’s our idea of having fun.”

“And you still do this?”

“Oh we haven’t tried to  _ trick _ people in years, but he still refers to me as his twin as a joke. Quite often, actually. We’ll be in the grocery store or some shit and some old lady will be like, being really rude about why I’m not talking and he’ll be like ‘ma’am how dare you speak so rudely to my twin sister, she was in a  _ tragic accident _ ’ and act  _ super _ offended, and she’ll freak out and run away, because, you know, racist old ladies or whatever. And it’s not like it’s not true, he’s completely right, he just… dramatizes how offended we both are from the incident. As if it’s still fresh in our minds and terribly horrible for either of us to remember. We’ve definitely both moved on from the horrors and are well past starting the healing process.”

“Yeah. My family has… dealt with our fair share of old ladies before.” He nodded in acknowledgment. But then he smirked. “So, which one of you is the evil one?”

“Oh, me, obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m the worst.” 

“Oh I doubt that.” He tried.

“Seriously?” She gave him a look that told him he was stupid. “I was a notorious phone thief, I’ve blackmailed just about every classmate twice, and taken cellphones from my classmates and used them as hostages to get them to do something for me.” He raised an eyebrow at this. “I am  _ very much _ the evil twin in this scenario.”

“Ok, maybe you’re not as innocent as I thought.”

“Damn straight.” She grinned. “Ladybug may have been an upstanding citizen, but  _ Marinette certainly was not _ .” He shook his head at her. 

“You are…”

“Let me guess, I’m ridiculous? Utterly ridiculous?”

“Something like that.” He shook his head at her. She bit her lip, and stared at the counter. The smile faded.

“The first thing that happened when I got there was I showed them the miracle box.” She started. She heard a sharp intake of breath, and it told her he hadn’t prepared for her to talk about this tonight. 

“I showed them the box, and they immediately tried to kill me despite my returning the box nicely.” She grabbed another slice of pizza. “And… I told them what happened. About Fu losing the other miraculous, about Hawkmoth, about how Mayura tracked Fu down, and how I became the new Guardian. At first, they were… disgusted with me. They didn’t like the idea of an untrained guardian, but the magic had been done and they were stuck with me.”

She watched as he leaned back on a different countertop, opposite her over the breakfast bar island. 

“But… it didn’t take them long to realise that despite my lack of training, I was…” She got quiet. “Despite the fact that I sometimes refuse to believe it, I was one of the most powerful people they had seen in a long time.” He nodded, believing it. “I was able to withstand so much more pain than any of the other kids, who were fucking children might I add, and-”

“You were a child too.” He pointed out darkly “Don’t forget that.”

“I was thirteen when the mess started, I was 18 when I went there.” She reminded him. “I was not a child anymore.” He made a sad but hardened expression at her, and she took another deep breath before continuing, “They… they made me do a lot more intensive stuff than they made anyone else do.” She confessed. “Like, insanely more difficult. I was… there was one day where they refused to give me food, and they just… stopped. They wouldn’t let me eat for a week before deciding I could eat again. And then three days later, they just… made me keep going. I went seven days without sleep, which is much more than the average human can handle. That was… excessive.” 

* * *

That  _ was _ excessive. 

Who on earth made someone fight while nutrient-deprived on  _ purpose _ ?

Apparently freaky elite training weirdos, that’s who.

“For four years, they basically put me through hell.” She mumbled. “I thought they would teach me  _ interesting _ things, like how to translate the book, how to protect the box with magic, teach me more about magic in an actually interesting way, not… whatever the hell actually happened.” So she was a magic user. 

He was sure she wasn’t evil though, she seemed to like him plenty enough. 

He appreciated the trust, she seemed… nice.

She munched on her pizza, thinking. 

“How did you leave?” He asked. She closed her eyes again. 

“I finally called it quits after they tried to take the miracle box away from me permanently. They thought that… I wasn’t ready, they wanted me to stay longer, and they had someone better in mind to take it. I… I couldn't let them take the box from me. I made a promise to Fu I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to it, and that was my job to see out. They… they took it, and I had to steal it on my way out.”

“Then where did you go?” He wanted to know how she left. 

“I… I used the horse miraculous to create a portal to Paris. I portaled to Paris, and… I had the box wrapped up in a bunch of clothes in a duffel bag and that was it. That was all that I had. I… used my inner guardian sense to find someone specific, and… I wound up at Adrien’s house.” She took another bite, pausing her story for a second. “And… and then he asked me where I went. I told him I went to Tibet. And I have never spoken to another person since.” There was a strange silence between them. 

“Remind me again how this is mutually beneficial?” He asked, a green gloved hand over his chin. 

She snorted. 

“You’re trying to figure out if a magic user in your city is a threat. You want to know if the Order of the Guardians is a threat to the Justice League. I’m trying to heal by talking about my problems and I’m using you to do so. You want information, I want to info dump. Perfect combination.” She shrugged, and snapped off a piece of the crunchy thin crust. “However, I think you should take this up Wonder Woman when you're done with me, seeing as Hippolyta is a former Me.” She said cheekily. 

“Wait, what?” Hippolyta was the former version of… her?

“Yeah, think of it like this: You are, like, the fifth Robin.”

“And?” What did that have anything to do with-

“And I’m like the 50000th Ladybug.” She raised an eyebrow at him. 

He finally got it.

“Huh. So-”

“So Hippolyta was one of the former Ladybug’s, which I  _ now _ am. So I think the Ladybug should not be a threat to the Justice League seeing as the previous version of myself is the mother of one of your members.”

“That… would be a problem.”

“I think the Guardians and the Amazons are on pretty good terms, and so are the amazons and the Justice League so I think you and me should be pretty good to go in terms of not being enemies.” She had a point. 

They had to get along, or there would be… issues. 

* * *

  
  


“Grayson.” He snapped, his feet up on a table in the cave. 

“What, Damian?” He got back. 

“Hypothetical situation.”

“Oh?”

“If someone were part of a group that was friends with the Amazons and the Amazons were friends with us, does that automatically make them friends with the Justice League?” There was a pause. 

“Ok, first of all, that was  _ way _ too specific to be hypothetical, and second, I don’t know about  _ automatically _ , they would still have to, you know, prove that they’re worth something, right? And third, how… how hypothetical are we talking?”

“A ‘problem for another day’ kind of hypothetical.” He got up, and left.

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

The next day, she had her next meeting at WE, about a progress update and a few other things, such as concerns she had now that she was fully started and underway, and a few things she had come across in her work. 

Damian was there. 

He looked as bored as ever. 

She tried not to stare at him too much, and sketched in her book as Adrien presented all of her findings to the board. 

She tried to listen to their answers, but she found herself somewhat distracted. 

She paid attention as best she could, and hoped Adrien had a really good memory so she could go over everything again later. 

“Of course, with this one particular problem budgeting may be a little bit of an issue, and-” She looked to see where they were on the list of questions. 

Ah, right. 

The one about the building project. For the location she was building for her new charity project.

“And I can see how we may be able to get a budget raise for it, if-”

“Give it to her.” Damian said as if he were uninterested. 

“So we can go ahead and-”

“Yes, just give her whatever she wants.” She blushed slightly, and then a lot more. That was… quite something to say to someone you talked to a few times and think she doesn’t know you’ve talked to more than twice. 

Oof. 

She thought about that as the meeting continued without her mental presence.

She was only supposed to have met him twice, and he was going all ‘give her whatever she wants’ on her. 

What a citation he had put her into here. 

Maybe she should write him a thank-you note or something. 

Sneak it into his pocket when he wasn’t looking. 

See if the oh great wonder boy was good enough to notice someone putting something in his jacket. 

One way to find out.

  
  


* * *

He liked to pride himself on his good senses.

He could sense a lot of things. 

He swore he could feel a pickpocketer coming from ten feet away. 

But as he reached into his jacket pocket for his keys, he frowned. 

There was a piece of paper in there, next to his keys. 

  
  


_ ‘I never did to thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Then again, I hardly am able to thank anyone for anything, which is rather ridiculous.  _

_ But I want to thank you. For everything you’re doing for me. It is greatly appreciated. More than you know.  _

_ With very much love and appreciation, M.’ _

He smiled at the note, then folded it back up, and placed it back in his pocket. 

_ More than I know, huh? I wonder what that could possibly mean. Unless… Nah.  _

  
  


* * *

She stared at the miracle box. 

The earrings were in there. 

They were only to be taken out when there was a world ending emergency, in any other case use another miraculous. 

But she missed Tikki.

She took a deep breath, and shakily pulled out the earrings. 

“Marinette?” Tikki gave her a worried look. 

She stared into Tikki’s eyes, and started to cry.

“Shh, Marinette, it’s ok.” Tikki flew over, and grabbed her face. She just sat back on her floor, leaning on her bedroom wall, and crying. Again. 

“I found people, Tikki.” She whispered through the tears.

“Huh?”

“I found… people.” She echoed. “I finally found some people that I’m not scared of. That I can be my old self around.” Tikki realised what this meant for her healing process, and cheered. “Tell the other Kwamii’s we’re gonna have a dessert party.” Tikki zoomed back into the miracle box, and she got up to go bake some cookies to celebrate this new chapter in her life. 

* * *

She was going to be here working for several months. Maybe even just over a year. 

So after about a month passed, Luka came to visit. 

He brought Juleka with him. 

She was kinda glad they didn’t bring Rose, because he had barely looked at her for second when he figured it out. 

She opened the door as she heard a knock, and he grinned as he let himself in. She smiled in return but he had barely walked through the door when he dropped the guitar case on the floor in surprise. 

She jumped back at the sudden noise, and Juleka was confused for only a few more more movements than he was. 

“Oh my god you found someone.” She blurted out. It was the fastest Marinette had probably ever heard her say something.

She nodded aggressively, a little… nervous. 

“What the fuck?!” Luka blinked rapidly, smiling, but confusedly. “My baby cousin _found_ someone? In  _ Gotham _ ?!” She nodded again. 

“What’s their name?” Juleka started bouncing, and Marinette swore it was the most energy she had ever seen her show before. 

She panicked. 

Really, she kinda liked Robin, but it would be difficult to say ‘hey I fell in love with a vigilante guess how’ but on the other hand, if she said it was Damian and she had extremely minimal explanation as to how she managed to like him… 

This wasn’t good.

_ Secret  _ She signed, finally. Juleka gave her an offended expression. 

“Rose will _not_ like this secret.” She warned her.

“ _ I  _ don’t like this secret.” Luka frowned at her, but not for very long. He was too excited for her. 

Robin was watching her from the other side of the street. And a few buildings down. 

He didn’t really mean to stalk, he just… happened to look in and see multiple people at the door and slightly panicked. 

Then he realised it was a guest, and he had no reason to panic. 

Until the person made a shocked face at her, and he realised it was her cousins. 

They were saying she… found someone. 

They were the meta cousins. 

The crazy feeling-feels ones. 

They asked her who it was. 

He was curious too. 

He wanted to know who this mystery person was… and _if_ it was him. 

But then she said it was a secret. 

He tried not to think about it as he ran off to go find Grayson. 

No sir he did not think about it at all. 

There was no way she liked Robin of all people.

No sir no way not possible. 

But… Why else would it be a secret?

What reason would she have for keeping a secret from her cousins? 

Because they didn’t know about Ladybug that’s why. 

Because she didn’t want to talk about her talking. 

Hm.

Lots to think about. 

* * *

He found a folded piece of paper on his desk one morning. 

“Valorie, what’s this?” He asked, and his secretary shrugged. 

“Must have been there when I came in. I didn’t see anyone leave it, or come in at all.”

He noticed it had something drawn on it. 

At closer inspection, it appeared to be a Ladybug. 

There was a Ladybug on a note on Damian’s desk. 

His heart seemed to freeze, and he gingerly picked it up. 

It had only two lines written on the other side. 

_ You should bring Cass around more often.  _

_ I like her.  _

She knew. 

Marinette knew he was Robin. 

And she knew Cass was Black Bat. 

This was a predicament.

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

She was waiting for him on the roof this time. 

“How many nights have you been out here waiting for me?”

“One.” She responded, curled under a blanket and sipping warm tea. 

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow. Black Bat jumped down, and landed next to him. 

“Mh.” She set her tea down, and then laid back on the cold cement in her huge hoodie. “I can… see things. Things most people can’t.”

“I’ve heard that one plenty of times before.” He didn’t mean to interrupt, but it was true. She ignored him.

“When I was with the Order, they taught me how to look at people’s souls. How to observe people from a supernatural angle.”

“Hm.”

“And looking at you…” She gave him a weird look. “How the fuck are you still alive?”

That caught him off-guard. 

But then again, so did most things she said and did. 

“I’m not sure.” He responded, truthfully. 

He really didn’t know. 

“Look, Robin, you may be one of the weirdest most busted up people I’ve ever met, but so is Black Bat, and I swear you two are freaking me right out.”

“So why invite us back?” Black Bat asked, curiously. 

“Because you are also two of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I can see your mental state as if it left physical marks, and you may be some of the most hurt people I’ve ever met but you’re also the most healed and the kindest and sweetest and nicest-” She cut herself off. She seemed to think about her next words very carefully. “And as much as you scare me, you help me. You help me in ways you both will never know.”

“Never?” He challenged. 

“I live my whole life in constant fear that the people I love will get mad at me for shit I have no control over, but being able to talk to you is… For once in my life I feel like I don’t have to be scared of what happens next. I don’t have to try and stay ten steps ahead of my enemy because there is no enemy. I don’t have to predict what move my friends will make next so I can make sure nothing bad will happen to them or me or us. I don’t have to calculate the biggest risk and have twenty contingency plans already halfway in action at all times.” He got that. 

He got it really well. 

He lived with the most paranoid people on the planet, this was like second nature to him. 

“You two, you… you let me be just Some Random Woman talking about her feelings instead of someone who’s trying to direct a conversation in a very specific direction with manipulation. I don’t have to be the fearless leader who’s in charge of keeping a group of superpowered teenagers alive. I’m not the kid who has to lie every day to hide a secret that could potentially get my friends and family  _ killed. _ I’m not someone who’s running from something. I’m not someone who had a traumatic experience that everyone tries to protect from the truth. I’m not…” She trailed off, and finally looked him in the eyes. 

Well, where his eyes would be if he had no domino mask. 

“Talking to you, I’m not scared of everything falling apart around me. I’m just a woman on a roof with some tea and something to converse about.” He let all of this sink in. 

She knew who he was because she could see his soul. 

She saw something very broken and yet very healed at the same time. 

He was helping her heal in ways no other person she had ever met was able to do.

That was what she said, anyway. 

“Good.” He offered.

“Thanks.” She mumbled.

“You’re welcome.” Black Bat said, raising her shoulders proudly. 

She loved being able to help people. 

This was probably like candy for her. 

* * *

  
  


Marinette came home from a meeting she and Adrien had had with a contractor to build an industrial kitchen, to upgrade the Martha Wayne foundation, and found Damian sitting on her couch and reading a book. 

He didn’t even look up. 

At first, she had a million questions. 

_ What are you doing here? _

_ How did you get in? _

_ Did someone let you in? _

_ Why are you not Robin this time? _

_ Why is any of this happening? _

_ Do you want some tea? _

But all she said was, 

“Hey.”

“Hello.” He responded, still reading his book. 

She dropped her bag down on the floor under her coat rack, and grabbed a glass for some water. 

“What is the meaning of this?” She asked calmly, and took a seat in her own chair. 

He flipped a page. 

“Wanted to see how you would react. That is all.” He offered. 

“Huh.” She pulled out her phone, and checked her messages. 

“Any other questions?”

“You want anything?” He raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, but remained composed. 

“No, I think I’m fine.”

“Well, if you change your mind, the water in the sink is fine to drink, or maybe it isn’t and I’m healing ridiculously fast from it as always, but there’s cookies in the cookie jar. I think. I’m not sure if I ate the last one or not.” He snorted at her response, and continued to read. 

“I may keep that in mind. Potentially.”

“Alright, look.” She set her phone down, and observed him. “You clearly want something, what is it? Why now come here the same way you always do? Why this? What’s different this time?” 

“Ah, so you  _ did  _ have questions?” He cracked a small smile, and she threw her phone at him. 

He caught it, and set it on the table. 

“You want dinner?” She sighed. 

“I thought you would never ask.” He finally stood up, and they walked back out the door. 

* * *

“You really don't know how to get someone’s attention, do you?” She said in the elevator that they were alone in. 

“No, not really.”

“I wonder what anyone else would say, if they walked into my apartment and saw whatever the hell that was.”

“Saw what?”

“A guy I supposedly have only talked to three times, none of them for very long, broke into my apartment and I didn’t panic and now we’re going out for food..” She laughed at how it all looked from only one perspective. “Twice in some meeting where he didn’t talk to me, and once in a hallway for like five seconds. As far as anyone knows, we’ve never had a real conversation.”

He seemed to ponder this for a moment. 

“I guess I’ll have to put in more effort to publicly romance you, then.” She blushed furiously, not actually thinking that that was where this conversation was going, but didn’t have time to say anything as the elevator halted to a stop. 

A person got on, and it was like flipping a switch. 

She pulled her sweatshirt hood up over her face, and turned to face Damian so whoever it was wouldn’t look at her. 

When they got off, he almost had to push her so she would move. 

The walked down the street, and she stared at the ground, following his footsteps as she watched his feet out of her peripheral vision. 

“Left.” He said, and she turned a corner next to him. 

He stopped, and she stopped next to him. 

He opened a door, and she kept her head down until she was through it. 

She looked up, and saw a restaurant with a local…  _ personality _ theme. 

She gave him a quizzical look. 

“Batburger.” He said with a straight face. 

* * *

She looked slightly amused as they walked in, and he found it hilarious. 

He always thought he was funny. 

Even if he didn’t laugh when he thought he had made a joke, which was what often led people to believe he had no sense of humor. 

But that was not, in fact, the case. 

She pulled out her phone, and typed something out. 

_ ‘I’ve never been here before, just get me whatever. I don’t want to take up your time by asking what everything is the long way.’ _

“You aren’t a burden, Marinette, just ask.” He sighed. She looked skeptical. 

She put her phone away, and decided to resort to sign language. 

She asked what everything was, and he took his time explaining what everything was. 

Not enough to make her feel incompetent, but enought to get the information across.

Eventually, she just sighed and told him to get her whatever he got. 

“Are you sure?” She nodded, and he just did what she told him to. 

* * *

He would not admit her swinging her legs around while she sat on the stool was cute. 

It was childish, and not cute. 

No sir. 

Ok, maybe it was a little cute. 

Or very cute. 

Very very cute. 

And the way she bopped her head around, wiggling to whatever song was playing on the radio overhead? That was cute too.

Everything she was doing was super cute. 

It was a slight problem. 

He decided to start a conversation with her, judging her body language as his answers. Or just watching her give her explanations with her weird hand gestures.

“Favorite colors?” She pointed to her pink mini backpack that held her wallet and keys and everything. “Pink, I’m assuming.” She nodded. “Cool. I think mine are… traffic light colors.” She burst into a fit of giggles. “I assume you know why?” She tried to hold back her laughter as she nodded. “Ok, um, favorite movie?”

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

“You know, talking _ at  _ your date and not waiting for an answer if often seen as rude.” A random woman in the place gave him a scolding look. 

“Talking to strangers you don’t know and giving your opinion on their conversation is often seen as rude.” Damian scowled back at her. 

“Well, if your date here really wanted to talk to you, she would, so maybe you ought to-

She grabbed a pen and wrote on a napkin, 

_ ‘He’s not rude, I can’t speak.’ _

Instantly, the woman reddened, and apologized profusely. 

Marinette just shrugged it off. 

It wasn’t that big of a deal to her anymore. 

But Damian was pissed. 

He glared at the woman as she walked out, but Marinette wasn’t done. 

_ ‘She wasn’t trying to be mean.’  _ She wrote. 

“Really? You’re sticking up for someone who rudely entered our conversation, and…” He trailed off as she flipped the napkin over and wrote some more. 

_ ‘Any woman would have done that. It’s a thing women do. If they think they see another woman in a sticky situation, they will step in. My not speaking was something she saw a danger sign, and was trying to help. Trust me. She was trying to be nice.’ _

“Huh.” He pondered this a moment. 

* * *

She had been right, honestly, he  _ had  _ shown up at her house for a reason. 

Taking her on a spontaneous date?

Not the reason. 

Not the reason at all. 

He had actually shown up at her house out of the blue to try and convince her to go out as Ladybug again. 

To meet the rest of the Bats as Ladybug, and eventually join the Justice League. 

But that plan fell through the cracks quickly. 

And now here they were, at Batburger, on a date. 

A spontaneous date. 

Damian Wayne did not go on spontaneous dates with random people. 

Except she wasn’t a random person. 

She was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, recovering superhero.

And he liked her a lot. 

* * *

“Was that a date?” She asked when they were alone again. 

“Did you want it to be?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought it was a date, was I wrong?”

“No, I just-” She rushed the beginning of her sentence, didn’t know where to end it. “Yeah. Yeah, that was a date.”

“Cool. Do I get another one?” He narrowed his eyes at her ever so slightly, and she was tempted to be the girl who kissed on the first date. 

But that  _ barely _ counted as a first date.

“Do I get a phone number?” She shot back. 

“I have yours. It’s in your file.”

“And?”

“I’ll text you something, if you would let me?” She blinked. 

This was… not in the plan. 

But then again, nothing was in the plan. 

Because you know what they say: make plans, and god laughs. 

“Yeah.” She cracked a smile, and said her goodbyes. 

* * *

She decided to text Alya. 

_ ‘Finally found someone willing to go on a date with my weird ass.’ _ She sent. 

She made the mistake of remembering she had cookies, and investigating if she had any left. 

This led to her noticing she had no knives in her knife block, and that she had to get some out of the dishwasher to put away before she forgot. 

And then she unloaded the whole dishwasher. 

And then got all her clothes out of the dryer, and brought them into her room. 

She mentally cursed when she remembered what she had done, and turned her phone on to see a flood of messages from various people. 

Alya:  _ ‘WTF YOU WENT ON A DATE?!’ ‘WITH WHO?!’ ‘ WHAT WERE THEY LIKE WHAT WAS THEIR NAME NUMBER ADDRESS GIVE ME EVERYTHING’ ‘GIRL ANSWER ME’ ‘YOU CAN’T JUST SAY THAT AND DIP ON ME WTF’  _

Nino:  _ ‘Why is Alya calling me freaking out and also did you go on a date? Who was it with? Do I need to give someone a shovel talk?’ _

Alix:  _ ‘Alya sent literally everyone a screenshot of your message. Congratumalations my dude.’ _

Adrien:  _ ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were going on a date?’ _

She sighed, her phone dinging a few more times before she even set it down. 

Time to de-escalate a situation. 

* * *

“Oh, and the last change she wanted to make was to move this wall a foot to the left.” Adrien relayed to the contractor. He nodded, and started to redraw the blueprints with the notes he had taken. 

“Is that everything, Miss Dupain-Cheng?” The man asked her directly. It was a yes or no question, she could handle those. 

She nodded her approval, and they said their goodbyes. 

In the car, Adrien gave her a concerned look. 

“You ok, M?” He tried to reach out to touch her shoulder, but stopped when she wiggled out of his grasp. 

She hummed her response. 

“Look, I know I’m no Luka, but I think something’s off with you.”

_ Why? Because I didn’t invite you as a tag-along on my date? _ She typed out on the notes app on her phone.

“No!” He insisted, unconvincingly. 

_ You know you don’t have to be in literally every part of my life, right? _

“I know, I just… I’m worried.”

_ Why? About what? That he’s gonna get upset with my odd communication skills? Because we’re well past that.  _

“No, I mean, I just-” He cut himself off. He realised how dumb he sounded. “Sorry.”

_ You should be. I’m perfectly fine. He’s very lovely, and I plan on going on a second date. Nothing is wrong with me, I don’t know why you think something would be. _

“I am sorry I upset you by thinking something was wrong, I’ll… not do that next time.”

_ Good.  _

“Yeah.”

* * *

He had to face it. 

He hadn’t thought something was wrong, he had  _ wished _ something was wrong. 

He had wished she wasn’t ok with her date, so that he could swoop in, play hero, and confess that he had really liked her all along. 

Because it was true. 

He had been in love with her the whole time. 

He just hadn’t said anything because he had been worried about timing. He was worried if he said he loved her too soon to her coming back, she wouldn’t believe him. 

He was worried if he told her too close to anything she accomplished, she wouldn’t believe him. 

He had been waiting for the absolute perfect time to confess, and he had waited too long. She had found someone who was willing to try, like he wasn’t. 

He was too late. 

* * *

_ ‘Hello.’ _ Her phone buzzed. 

An unknown number. 

She suspected it was Damian. 

_ ‘Yee.’ _ She responded with. 

_ ‘What?’ _

_ ‘Nothing. It’s a meme. Don’t worry about it. This is Damian, yes?’ _

_ ‘Oh. Right. Yes.’ _

_ ‘Prove it ;).’ _

No. Wait. She should not have added that winky face. That was a mistake. A MISTAKE. DELETE. BACKSPACE. God, where was Viperion when you needed him?

_ ‘Uh, my favorite colors are red, green, and yellow and you smell like Lavender and Honey.’ _

_ ‘Ok, you are either the world's greatest stalker or you are actually Damian. I’m gonna take my chances.’ _

_ ‘In all honesty, I’m probably both seeing as I am who I am.’  _ She was confused for a second, until she figured it out. Robin. He was saying  _ Robin _ was the world's greatest stalker. That made much more sense. 

_ ‘Do I *really* smell like lavender and honey?’ _

_ ‘Yes.’ _

_ ‘Hm.’ _

_ ‘It has become my favorite smell, as of late.’ _ She stared at that message. 

She was his favorite smell?

The fuck?

Ok, he clearly had it as bad as she did.

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

So then came the problem of people wondering why people who barely talked were suddenly going on a date. 

And Damian had said… that to counter this, he was going to try harder to, as he said, ‘publicly romance’ her. 

She thought he had been joking. 

He had not been joking. 

At all. 

* * *

In her head, she knew, logically, Damian and Robin were the same person. 

No differences, at all. 

So why the fuck did they feel so different?

With Robin, he was wearing a mask (duh). 

And without that weird little piece of green fabric, he seemed so… less free. 

Robin didn’t give a flying fuck what people thought. 

Damian cared a little bit. 

She should have seen this coming. 

She should have known it would take a while to adjust. 

But everytime, no matter how many woerd identities she knew about, it didn’t get any easier. 

“And how are you this fine morning?” He asked as he sat across from her at the long table. 

She grinned and gave a thumbs up. It was her panic response. 

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question her further. 

“Anyways, you’re here because another company has seen your plans as well as your progress, and is willing to add funds to your project if you would appreciate them doing so.” A few other people she recognized walked in, a few she didn’t, and suspected they were from the other company. 

But then a very familiar face appeared. 

And she grinned while waving like a maniac. 

“Marinette!” Aeon smiled at her, and came over to give her a hug. 

Marinette jumped out of her seat. 

“Well I guess we can say this will go smoothly.” Damian said, almost phrasing it like a question. 

“Marinette and I met a very long time ago, when our classes were paired up for an overseas event.” Aeon explained. 

Damian nodded slowly, and Marinette sat back down. 

“So, where’s Adrien?” Aeon asked her, curious. “It is my understanding that you two stick together a lot these days.” Marinette shot her a warning look. “I’m not gonna mess with your life!” She insisted, cracking a small smile. “Well, this time, anyway.”

Marinette mouthed the words,

_ ‘No more messing with me.’ _

“Messing?” Damian frowned. 

“I used to think Adrien and Marinette would look cute together, so I would try and set up situations to get them stuck together.” Aeon confessed. “It was rather funny, if I’m being honest.”

No on needed to be an expert lip reader to know Marinette’s next words were  _ fuck you.  _

“Anway, continuing with business as usual,” Everyone could see his dislike of something from a mile away. 

Marinette knew what it was. 

Aeon could figure out what it was fairly easily. 

The rest of the room was very confused. And also kinda intrigued. 

* * *

The next day he visited her at her temporary office space. 

“Having fun?” He asked, handing her a cookie. 

She grinned as she took the cookie. 

“It’s a cookie.” She whispered. There were people around, but she was separated by glass. No one could hear them, and knew she sometimes mouthed words, so they would probably just assume that was what was happening. 

“It  _ is _ a cookie. Brilliant observation, Sherlock.” She whacked him in the arm, gently. 

She heard a knock on the door. 

She gave Damian a slightly amused look. 

“Sorry I locked the door. I thought it would be funny.” He said as he got up to let a confused Adrien in. 

“Uh, hi?” He walked in, looking around in concern. 

Marinette waved around the bag of cookies to show him what was out of the ordinary. 

“Ah. Cookies.” He nodded, and took a seat that Damian had recently vacated. 

So he took the opportunity to lean on her desk instead. 

She blushed slightly, and it did not go unnoticed. 

Damian smirked slightly, and Adrien narrowed his eyes. 

“Is this the guy you went on a date with, Marinette?” He asked cautiously. 

She nodded, blushing a little harder. 

“Well, I must get going, but…” He grabbed a blue sticky note and a pen. “Got any plans for Saturday?” She shook her head, and grinned at him. “Lovely.” He started to write on the sticky note, ripped it off the pad, and stuck it to her desktop. It was a location and a time. She smiled as she waved goodbye. He gave her a fond look as he waved back, and left. 

She noticed Adrien giving her A Look™, but she ignored him, pretending not to notice. 

* * *

Come saturday, she looked at the note again, and realised it was a building she would need powers to climb to the top of. 

That sneaky motherfuc-

She texted him to see what on earth his plans were. 

_ ‘Ah, I see you’ve figured out it’s a masked occasion.’ _

_ ‘Dude. if you wanted an excuse to see me in skintight leather all you had to do was ask.’  _ She sent without thinking. 

Note the ‘without thinking’ part. 

She gasped in realisation, and he sent, 

_ ‘This is my asking. Please don’t be joking, that would look cute as hell on you.’ _

_ ‘You wish.’ _

_ ‘I do.’ _

She stared at her phone, and sighed dramatically. 

She couldn’t go as Ladybug, she was supposed to be retired. She couldn’t go as Lady Noir, Adrien might notice and make the connections. 

She could use the glasses… Someone would notice she was wearing glasses now. Maybe she could use Wayzz?

No, she had to use a miraculous none of her friends had seen before. Something no one knew the powers of, and could relate back to being Miraculous-related at all. 

She considered being comical and using the rooster miraculous, but went with the dog one instead. 

She could pretend to have found it walking past a window in a jewelry shop and bought it. 

She pulled out the black and orange collar, and it fizzled as it changed into a rose gold color. 

“Guardian?” Barkk appeared, clearly confused. 

“I’m going for a run, Barkk.” She explained, smiling softly at the Kwami. “I’m gonna go meet Robin, and you’re gonna help me get there, ok?” The small Kwami lit up with joy, and ran in circles around her. She laughed, and called, “Barkk, playtime!” She transformed, and checked herself out in the mirror. 

She was wearing a loose light-brown hoodie with folded-over dog ears attached to the top, over black skinny jeans that ran into knee-high black combat boots that had brown buckles on them. 

She looked edgy. 

She pulled her hood down from where it covered her face to reveal a brown mask over her blue eyes. Her hair, similar to her time as Lady Noir, was once again acting as her tail by being up in a long sleek ponytail, and much darker than her natural hair again as well. But it was mostly hidden as it was piled up in the hood. 

She had a belt, and attached to it was a stick like what she had seen Nightwing use before he became Batman. 

She gave it a test whirl, and felt some adrenaline course through her even though she was still just at home. 

She paused again. 

She stared at herself in the mirror, and wondered if she really could do this. 

Go out, using a miraculous.

She was having second thoughts. 

_ Nah, I’m fine. Just as long as I don’t run into anyone I know. Which shouldn’t be very difficult. _

But it was coming time to leave. 

She de-transformed, leaving a confused Barkk. 

She couldn’t have anyone in the nearby building *just so happen* to look out and see her leaving her own apartment. That would be… weird. 

She headed out onto her balcony, and used a ladder to climb onto the roof. 

Not anything people hadn’t seen before. 

She jumped from her roof to another one, the next building over, and came up with a plan. 

The next few buildings were coming up a narrow road. One that she could cross the street in a single fall. 

She got a running start, still not wearing a miraculous, and leapt across the road. 

Marinette transformed mid-air, and Hound jammed her stick in between two buildings seconds before she would have hit the ground, doing an acrobatic twirl with a nightwing-level grace and snatched her staff before taking off in the right direction. 

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

Hound could smell an almost overwhelming amount. 

She made a disgusted face as she launched herself back up a different building. 

She had memorised the note, but that didn’t mean she entirely understood it. 

She hopped around, avoiding cameras, eventually finding where Robin was sitting up on a planter box and kicking his legs back and forth. 

“You’re five seconds late.” He pointed out, amusedly. 

“Sorry, got caught up in traffic.” She lied, and jumped over to where he was. “What’s up?”

He tilted his head at her, and she could feel him inspecting her new outfit. 

“Who…” 

“I couldn’t risk anyone I know making a connection.” She shrugged. “All my friends know what some of the powers are, no one’s ever seen these powers before. Then they can’t make the connection between me and the… thing.” He nodded slowly. “I can’t let anyone know the miraculous are in circulation again.”

“No flashy sexy outfit, then.” He sighed, dramatizing his disappointment. 

“No, afraid not.” She giggled. “I’m not feeling the flashy right now. Not today, and I probably won’t tomorrow either.”

“Understandable.” She hopped up on the box next to him. “So, how is… being back in a suit?” She made a face. 

* * *

He didn’t like that face. 

She looked like she was gonna be sick, almost. 

The whole reason he had invited her to do this was really like a test, almost. 

To see how badly she would react. To see how far she was coming, how far she would go. 

But now he regretted it. 

She was looking like she would rather be anywhere but here. 

“I… I don’t know. I mean, yeah, holding the box, I kinda have a duty to use it, that’s my job, to use the miraculous for good things, but everytime… I can hardly stand to look at the box. I was barely able to make myself take it when I ran away. But I knew the creatures… the Kwami’s… they would be mistreated if I left them, so I took them with me. I didn’t think… I should have done something sooner.” 

Welp. Now she was about to cry. That was not ideal. 

“No, you shouldn’t have.” He insisted. “You should only do things when it’s safe for you to do them.” She pouted up at him from under her hood. She looked… so guilty. He hated that. She shouldn’t be feeling guilty because ehr trauma stopped her from doing something. 

Hypocritical of him, he knew, but this girl was important. 

Marinette was extremely powerful. 

She had told him before, about how she was able to take so much power and energy that it was enough to drive any other mortal human insane. 

That was another nail in his ‘is Marinette meta’ coffin, but at this point her being a meta would be the least of his issues. 

“You aren’t… disappointed?”

“What reason would I have to be disappointed in you?” He argued, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. 

“That I could have been helping people. This whole time, I could have been making a difference in the world, but instead I was hiding and wallowing in my misery.” 

He knew she wouldn’t have been so bothered by that if she didn’t believe it. She was worried that was what he thought of her because it was what she thought of herself. 

“You weren’t wallowing, M… what do I call you?” He realised he had forgotten to ask. 

“Hound, please and thank you.”

“You weren’t  _ wallowing, _ Hound. You were healing. There’s a difference. You shouldn’t be ashamed of yourself for not healing faster. You’ve been trying to get over four years of issues in a record time.” She sniffled slightly. “You shouldn’t push yourself to get over it faster, you’ll make things worse.” She picked her head up, for only a second before squeezing him in a hug, burying her face in the side of his arm. 

“Thanks.” She mumbled into his sleeve, and he awkwardly reached up to pat her on the head. 

That was not where he thought this would be going. 

At all. 

“Hey, you want to go somewhere?” He offered. 

She finally pulled back, and shook all the negative emotions out of her expression. 

“Where do you propose we go?” She wiped a single stray tear off of her face, but otherwise started to look excited. 

“Wayne Tower.” A ghost of a smile played at her lips. 

“Haven’t you gone there hundreds of times?”

“I’m thinking about a part of it I bet you’ve never seen before. The roof of it.” He jumped off the planter box, and she followed. 

Robin stuck a hand out to Hound, who tilted her head at it. 

“You don’t have a yoyo anymore, Hound. You’ll have to let me take it from here.” He smirked as she blushed, and let him wrap an arm around her before they took off into the weird weird night. 

* * *

“Ever wanted to meet the Justice League?” He asked, and she paused. 

They had stopped for snacks, and she was munching on a donut. 

“Not really.” She confessed. “I mean, the implications of  _ needing _ to meet the Justice League would mean… bad things.” She shrugged. 

He thought about that for a second. 

She was right, the idea of _needing_ to see them would be… not very good. 

“I supposed that is true.” He agreed. “But what if it was… for fun?”

“What, are you secretly deeming me a threat and all of this is for show and you actually kinda hate me?” She said it as if it were a joke. 

They both knew she wasn’t kidding. She was genuinely scared of this happening right now. 

“No, I just… I think, you know, you’re a damn powerful person, they might like to be able to confirm that you are who I say you are, and, you know, not try and stalk you all the damn time.”

“Oh, you mean, like _ you  _ do?”  _ That _ was a joke.

“Ha-ha, Hound. Very funny. No, I mean seriously. I think…” 

“Do I have the option to say no? I really don’t wanna… not just yet. I don't really want to... jump right back into this bullshit full time.” 

“Ok.” He gave up pretty easily. 

She was too cute to try and influence. 

Sure, he  _ could _ use his superior tactics to get someone to do what he wanted, but he just takes _ one look _ at this tiny sad broken girl in a dog hoodie and he felt guilty for even existing. 

“You do whatever you want at any pace you want to.”

“Thanks.” She scooted closer to him, and leaned on him again. “It sucks, not being able to hear that from my friends, you know.”

He did not know. He didn’t know anything about what she was going though. 

“No, not really, but I am trying.”

“And that-” She poked his nose, “-Is more than so many people can say right now.” 

* * *

She had to go back to Paris for a week, to keep up with her still very flourishing other business. 

Adrien stayed in Gotham to continue with the charity foundation project. 

“Ah!” Alya yelled when she saw her.

She snorted in response, having three seconds to prepare before a sprinting Alya Lahiffe crashed into her. 

She giggled as her best friend nearly tackled her to the floor.

“I missed you, Marinette!”

_ I missed you too,  _ She thought, but had no hands to tell her so. 

But as Alya pulled away, and Marinette stared into her eyes she was hit with a sudden wave of guilt. 

This was her best friend. 

Her absolute best friend in the whole entire world. 

And she just started talking to some guy in a grocery store over her. 

She felt like a piece of shit. 

But the feeling slowly faded as she got an echoing of Robin in her head, 

_You shouldn’t be ashamed of yourself for not healing faster._

So she slowly let a small smile take over her face, and followed her two tall friends out of the airport.  Nino going with a shirt casual hug and not a bone-crushing tackle had saved them some time. 

“Tell me about your man!” Alya insisted, and Mairnette huffed as she brought out her notebook. She knew Alya would ask about him, so she prepared her answers. 

She had written basically a whole essay on what Damian was like. 

A watered-down version, of course, minus the Robin part and what taking after all these years finally felt like, but… not entirely. 

Alya got to that part, which she didn’t know was  _ really _ about, and squealed before reading out loud to Nino, who was driving them, 

“When I met him for the first time, I instantly felt like something was different. Every time he’s around, I feel like a door to a part of my soul I didn’t even know was accessible has been opened for the first time. Around him, I like a completely new person. Instead of that one sad broken friend, I’m a potential new friend who has differences that aren’t related to a tragic accident that brings the room down-” Alya stopped. Her excitement faded as she continued, “Wait, Marinette, you don’t actually feel like that around us, do you?” She turned around, and gave the tiny girl a scared look. 

She shook her head. 

_ ‘Not you. Other people who act weirdly around me maybe but you act like nothing has changed between us at all and you don’t make me feel guilty like some other people do like at parties and stuff when I slow a conversation down or something.’  _ She signed slowly. 

“Shit.” Alya ‘translated’ what she said for Nino who couldn’t read and drive at the same time. “I will find whoever they are, and destroy them. Just saying.” She continued to read silently, and Nino pulled into the parking lot. 

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE AND THANK YOU: ok, so, in a fic, not telling you which one but A fic, I was Alya to put her hair up in braids but seeing as I am a white kid who are up in fukcing farmland middle of nowhere in a statistically very white place, I don't know much about how to write a character with braids and I want it to be realistic. Can someone, preferably someone similar in race to Alya, please give me a bit of advice on hair care here???????? PLEASE AND THANK YOU I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH OK HAPPY READING!!!!

As soon as Alya was done, Nino demanded a turn with her cute little  _ ‘frequently asked questions’ _ book she made for them. 

She had also written little stories about things that had happened that she found funny or cute so Alya didn’t have to sit and patiently wait for her to slowly explain stories that were… not very interesting when told slowly. 

Her two friends took turns reading and hanging out with her. 

Marinette and Nino played video games while Alya read, then her and Alya made cookies together while Nino took his turn reading. 

Eventually, she walked back to the bakery, where she was staying for the night. She was staying with her parents over the break she was taking from her extended trip to Gotham. 

* * *

The next day, her and Alya went shopping together. 

During lunch they caught up with Chloé and Sabrina for lunch. 

Chloé demanded to know more about Damian, having figured out who he was pretty quick. 

Marinette rolled her eyes, and they turned to talking about gossip magazines who were shipping two celebrities who probably had never even met again. 

_ ‘Oh my god these full-grown adults act worse than teenaged Alya’ _ She grinned as she signed. 

“Hey fuck you.” Alya frowned at her friend. “I fucking fact-checked, you asshole.”

_ ‘Only after I did first and proved you wrong.’ _

“Oh, shut up.”

_ ‘I technically did not say-’  _ Alya gently slapped Marinette’s hands down onto the table to hold them still, and the black haired girl laughed. 

Chloé gave her a soft smile. 

“I missed your dumb laugh, you know.” She mumbled. 

Marinette blinked at her. 

After she came back, Chloé was one of the classmates that interacted with her the least. 

They were technically no longer classmates, they were all fully grown adults, but still. It was the thing they all had in common, so it was what she referred to them as. 

It was who they were to her before she… went away. 

Marinette grabbed a napkin and pen and wrote,  _ ‘I missed you too, ya big goof.’ _ on it. 

Chloé pretended not to care, but was very careful sticking it in her purse. 

“Come on, we're late to go getting ice cream with all the rest of our friends.” Alya tugged on Marinette’s arm, and the four of them took off to go find André’s. 

* * *

He was making his way down the street when the former class found him. 

Nino had driven a few of them in his car to a nearby public parking space after Marinette and Sabrina had used their combined genius to track him down. 

But they were near a sandwich place and despite the fact that four of them had just had lunch, most of the rest of them had not. 

And Nino had left his wallet in his car. 

* * *

Marinette saw the person in the oncoming traffic not notice him going back across the street as they messed with their radio. 

They didn’t see Nino. 

They weren’t going to stop in time. 

She panicked. 

She couldn’t reach him in time, he was too far away. 

She couldn't stop the car, she couldn’t stop Nino, she couldn’t do anything. 

But she could. 

She could do something. 

She could do something she hadn’t done in years. 

“NINO, STOP!” She screamed, and he froze in complete confusion. 

The car zoomed past him, just barely missing him. 

The driver never even slowed down. 

Her former classmates stared at her, and she felt tears start to form in her eyes. 

She blinked slowly, registering what just happened. She had spoken, yelled really, in front of a large group of people who knew her. 

She just royally fucked up her mental health is what just happened. 

Nino finally unfroze, and ran back over to hug her. 

“I’m sorry.” He said into the top of her head. She just blinked rapidly, wondering what the hell just happened. “I’m really really sorry.” 

_ Me too, _ Marinette thought. 

But she couldn’t bring herself to say. 

She  _ wanted _ to say it. 

She wanted to say it _ so bad.  _

But her mouth refused to work. 

It refused to function. 

So she just cried instead. 

Sandwiches were long abandoned.

* * *

She sat at a table in her parents house, staring at a coffee mug. 

She hadn’t moved in hours. 

Neither had the coffee mug. 

She figured it must be very cold by now, probably having an unpleasant taste. 

Her friends were long gone, having left after realising she was stressed about what she had done and needed space to think. 

But thinking was not helping. 

Thinking was making it worse. 

However tragically, thinking was all she could do when talking was clearly not an option. 

She figured she had set herself a few years backwards in progress, gone a few squares backwards on the Candyland board. 

She wondered how her friends were reacting to this situation. 

Sure, they had been here only moments prior, but she had fallen so far backwards into her own head Marinete had barely been able to register what her surroundings were, much less what her friends were thinking and feeling. 

* * *

The rest of her trip back to Paris was not much fun. 

It was a working break, really, she had just had yesterday off. 

She silently plowed through paperwork. 

How else would she?

Loudly?

She thought the fuck not. 

“Hey.” Someone knocked on her door. She looked up, and it was Nino with a bag. She assumed it had food in it. “I got you your favorite from that place down the street.” He sat the bag down on her desk, and she shot him a sad grateful look. 

But instead of leaving, he took a seat next to her desk. 

Yeah, she had always been into fashion, but that wasn’t what she had done with her life. Yeah, she still sold art on the side, but that world needed help. 

Her business was about starting up charity foundations in places where they were needed the most. She started and maintained so many different foundations, despite having no actual college degree.

She had magic, though, and that counted for something. Not that anyone knew, anyway. 

She decided to start this instead of designing because she felt like she could do more  _ real _ good in the world through this. 

‘Thank you.’ She wrote in her notebook, and he nodded. 

“Whatcha working on?” She sat back in her chair, and used her pen to point to various words on the forms, the headlines for all the papers, basically giving him a very brief summary. “Interesting.” She opened the bag, and took out the warm soup. 

As soon as the smell hit her nose, she instantly wanted to start crying. 

There were no expectations here, not like before. 

Not like when she was younger. 

Her friends just wanted her to be happy. To feel ok. To heal. 

There was no, _ ‘ok you did it a little bit now we demand an explanation and for you to start talking all the time’  _ there was nothing of that sort. 

Just warmth. Like this nice warm soup. 

“Hey, are you ok?” Nino frowned at her. 

She stood up abruptly, and he followed suit. 

“Is it not actually your favorite? Is it-” She cut him off with a hug. “Oh.”

She wanted to say thank you. She wanted to thank him for understanding. 

But everytime she tried to use her stupid mouth, it felt like a hand was reaching down her throat and squeezing her into silence. Like her voice box was locked with a padlock she didn’t know the passcode to. 

Every time she tried to speak she felt like she was choking on air. 

So she decided to beat the system.

_ “Thank you.”  _ She whispered so quietly it barely counted. 

Nino squeezed her even tighter, suddenly feeling a little bit guilty himself. 

“I never did say thank you to you either, you know. For saving me from getting hit by that car. So thank you, Marinette.” She coughed as tears started to fall down her face. "You were quite literally a life saver back there. And I'll owe you one for a very long time for that."

Damn, she was  _ never _ going to get through this paperwork. 


End file.
